A top U.S. executive for Toyota Motor Corp. ™ says he thinks 2007 industry sales will be 16.3 million light vehicles, down slightly from last year, but still a "very decent year" despite current softness.

He also predicted a rebound in 2008, with steady growth into the next decade.

Several auto executives and analysts have said the light vehicle market will fall in the 16.3-million range.

Industry sales were soft in July, with a seasonal annual selling pace of 15.54 million vehicles. Toyota posted a 7% decline in July compared with July 2006, while General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) posted double-digit monthly declines.

But Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said retail sales this year "are strong, and our country's economic fundamentals are solid."

The 16.3 million in U.S. sales he expects in 2007 is down from last year, when auto makers sold 16.56 million.

Lentz was speaking during the Management Briefing Seminars, an annual automotive industry conference here.

He said it's hard to pinpoint what's creating current soft sales.

"Higher fuel prices?" he said. "The housing slowdown? Lower fleet sales? Some payback from incentives from the past? Who knows?"

In an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the conference, Lentz said he expects sales in the second half of 2007 to be stronger than in the first half.

Toyota should post a U.S. sales increase of 5% to 6% in 2007, he said. Lentz also said 2007 industry pickup truck sales, which have been negatively affected by the housing slump and higher fuel prices, should hold steady at the current selling rate, which is down about 5% from last year.

But he said pickup truck sales will see peaks and valleys month to month and the swing will be hard to predict.

Toyota, he said, is on track to sell 200,000 of its new, full-size Tundra pickup trucks annually, Lentz said. Toyota earlier this summer boosted incentives on the Tundra as U.S. pickup truck sales sagged.

Lentz said he doesn't see huge increases in pickup truck incentives unless the market sees a deep drop.

Overall, Toyota is bullish because the U.S. population is booming and key economic drivers such as GDP, job growth, productivity and inflation are positive.

He said he believes the market will rebound in 2008, "then continue growing steadily into the next decade."

Lentz also noted that 4 million potential new drivers are entering the market each year for the next 10 years.

Industry sales could grow by 100,000 vehicles or more a year, eventually reaching 18 million "sometime in the late 2010s."

Still, he noted that auto makers face unprecedented regulatory pressure. Congress is demanding increases in average fuel economy standards.

He said that while auto makers create one-fifth of major greenhouse gases in the U.S. and have no control over fuel prices, cars and trucks are "an easy target for regulators."

Lentz said the industry is making good progress with hybrid cars and alternative fuels. But he said the industry needs to work together to "transform our image from an industry that drags its feet to one that runs on innovation."